Preschooler illness knowledge questionnaire: a forced-choice measure of preschoolers’ illness knowledge

Abstract

Children’s development of illness knowledge is a research area that can inform interventions and practice designed for pediatric populations. Preschoolers’ development of illness knowledge, in particular, is important because this age group represents the earliest stage of illness knowledge development that also affords researchers children who have adequate verbal skills to communicate their knowledge. The lack of psychometrically tested instruments to evaluate preschoolers’ illness knowledge is a major gap in this research area. The purpose of this descriptive study was to examine the psychometric properties of a newly developed instrument called the Illness Knowledge Questionnaire (IKQ). The study had three sequential, complementary phases and uses mixed methods to analyze data. Phase I was designed to establish the content validity of the IKQ with a sample of content and instrument design experts. The specific aim of Phase II was to pilot the revised IKQ post Phase I with a sample of children within three age groups (4- 5 year olds, 8-9 year olds, and 11-12 year olds). Finally, Phase III had three specific aims to establish scale structure, reliability and construct validity of the revised IKQ post Phase II with a sample of 4-5, 8-9 and 11-12 year old children.